The doctors of Provincial Medical & Health Services (PMHS), Cadre, were transferred as per government orders by the bureaucratic administration. The different cadres of doctors immediately raised a hue and cry. India news raised this topic, resulting in the exposure of not only the innocuous tip but the unseen iceberg itself.
Grievances about doctors being posted in two places at the same time, handicapped doctors being posted in far-flung cities, couple doctors being posted in two different cities, and doctors with a longer stay in plum cities being overlooked cause complete confusion.
The Health Minister, Brajesh Pathak, quickly announced the redressal of grievances, but the Additional Chief Secretary (Health), vehemently denied such irregularities. The Minister wrote a letter to ACS, Amit Mohan Prasad, explaining his stand on these transfers, but failed to get a satisfactory response.
Meanwhile, the controversy reverberated through the administration until the State Chief Minister took suo moto cognizance and ordered a high-level investigation led by two senior IAS officers. The Director General of Medical Health, parallely, formed a five-member committee to look into the matter. However, nothing concrete came out of the enquiry committee at this level. The pending enquiry has yet to submit its report to the State Chief Minister.
In the intervening period, interim doctors are not available to fill in the vacant places created by the transferred doctors. The state is already facing a resource crunch of doctors and paramedics, with the effect that hospitals are shutting down services due to a lack of doctors.
The ACS issued directives to immediately leave for their new places of postings, which comes in the wake of dogged controversy as an impractical solution to the resource crunch hospitals are facing.
The doctors› association is raising legal issues. They allege deep-seated corruption and question how the transfers of Chief Medical Officers were allegedly leaked in the media for obvious gain.